In a notable turn of events that sent shockwaves across the cryptocurrency community, Binance, a prominent player in the crypto space, has announced its decision to shut down its fiat-to-crypto payments platform, Binance Connect.

This unexpected move comes amidst a broader slowdown in the crypto market, attributed to underlying structural issues within the digital landscape.

Recent market fluctuations have been a rollercoaster ride, with prices experiencing swings in response to various factors. The past 24 hours witnessed a market slump, following a brief upward trend observed over the preceding 7 days, according to the latest market reports.

Within this timeframe, a staggering total of 60,786 traders found themselves in liquidation, resulting in a cumulative liquidation volume of approximately $134.86 million USD.

The most significant liquidation event occurred on the Binance platform involving the ETHUSDT trading pair, with a hefty sum of $2.34 million USD involved.

Today, a chapter comes to an end for Binance Connect, the regulated avenue for purchasing and selling cryptocurrencies affiliated with the Binance exchange.

The decision to terminate operations for @Binance_Connect, effective August 15th, stemmed from the platform’s service provider discontinuing support for card payment services. Speaking on this development, a Binance spokesperson stated:

• “Our continuous evaluation of products and services ensures the alignment of our resources with our long-term strategic objectives at Binance. Over the past six years, Binance has evolved from a mere exchange into a global blockchain ecosystem, encompassing diverse business segments. We remain agile in adapting our business strategy to cater to evolving market dynamics and user preferences.”

Launched under the name “Bifinity” on March 7, 2022, Binance Connect served as an intermediary, facilitating fiat-to-crypto transactions by bridging the gap between the cryptocurrency sphere and conventional financial systems.

Resultantly, Bitcoin’s value encountered a dip over the past 24 hours, resting at approximately $29,000. However, it’s noteworthy that Bitcoin’s dominance over alternative coins (altcoins) has substantially increased.

This rise in dominance is attributed to the ongoing downturn in most altcoins, including notables like XRP, meme-inspired coins, EOS, and Solana, which have experienced losses of up to 5%.

Not long ago, Bitcoin surged by more than $1,500, touching a multi-week high above $30,000. Despite this rally, Bitcoin’s momentum faltered, leading to a significant drop the following day.

Interestingly, the cryptocurrency demonstrated stability over the week despite limited trading activity.

Furthermore, analytical chart patterns illustrate Bitcoin’s struggle to break free from the tight trading range hovering between $29,200 and $29,500, resulting in a lack of heightened price volatility, as anticipated.

This period of price calm for Bitcoin coincides with a decline in trading volume and year-on-year volatility for Bitcoin derivatives.

The 30-day average trading volume for both Bitcoin options and futures has hit its lowest point since January 2023, totalling approximately $487.37 million and $16.7 billion, respectively.

Amidst these fluctuations, industry experts remain optimistic about Bitcoin’s prospects.

Analysts at Delphi Digital assert that a consolidation phase akin to the period between 2015 and 2017 is underway around the $30,000 mark, with indicators pointing towards a potential all-time high (ATH) for Bitcoin in Q4 2024.

In parallel news, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seems to be inching closer to greenlighting the launch of a Bitcoin Spot ETF investment vehicle after a protracted period of regulatory compliance.

In a strategic move, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management firm, has furnished additional details to its Bitcoin ETF applications currently under SEC review.

This development has rekindled investor interest in the cryptocurrency realm both nationally and globally.

Taking a proactive stance, the company has forged a “supervisory sharing agreement” with Coinbase, a significant player in the crypto exchange arena.

This decision comes on the back of reports suggesting the SEC’s openness to considering ETF applications structured under such arrangements.

BlackRock joins the ranks of several entities awaiting regulatory approval for their crypto ETF submissions within the SEC’s domain.

Among them, ARK Invest, helmed by CEO Cathie Wood, submitted an application for an ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF listing in May 2023.

The company has recently faced a regulatory setback, encountering an additional 21-day delay from the SEC, providing the regulator with a three-week window to open the proposal for public input.

Everybody saw the coming disaster but the Economic community of West African States (Ecowas) whose top leaders, the Heads of State and Governments of its Member States, excepted the four countries under military regimes they have outlawed -they blindly decided on July 30th that the military route is the wisest way to dislodge those militaries who staged a coup on July 26 against what they term a constitutionally elected President. That happened in Niger Republic. In an esprit the corps, the civilian rulers of the remaining 11 West African States declared they would go to war to ensure their mission to restore democracy in the hapless Sahelian nation is accomplished.

That was grandstanding at its worst. And immediately the feeling ran through the populace of the region and in far-flung regions of the world that in addition to talking tough to preserve their own status, the new political warriors were also suspected to committing an assisted suicide in the hands of France in a bid to help this lingering neocolonial power to maintain its grip on what is called its “pré-carré”, the francophone preserve made up of a confettis of remnants of its colonial past on the continent.

Ecowas’ decision shocked the world. This was the blunder of all blunders awaiting to fall on a West African region already plagued with countless woes, torn apart between its economic impasse, social and security ills, political uncertainties -now comes in the hasty and headless decision by Ecowas to flex its weak muscles with a view to entering in a war, if needs be.

All this came about because its leaders without enough thoughts nor serenity decided barely four days after the coup d’Etat toppled their Nigerien pair that they would not want to be seen as giving to the latest pronunciamentos.

Dismissing their experts, not taken into account their proposition to go it gradually, and not properly consulting at home with their people or Parliaments, acting in an arrogant and blind way, the Authority of the Community as they are referred to, launched a series of unbearable economic sanctions against Niger, hurting strongly its people, along with an ultimatum to the authors of the coup plotters.

They were stark in their posture, calling them either to restore the ousted President, in the name of a sacrosanct constitutional order, within a week time, or face a military intervention that would force them out of office.

Never in international institutional cooperation has there been such a brutal response to an internal upheaval as the one the West African regional leaders have come up with to fix Niger’s latest bout of political disruption with the military exiting their barracks and positioning themselves at the heart and helms of their country’s socio-political life.

For Ecowas to unleash such a blow to the Nigeriens new leaders, many believe, there must be serious reasons.

France’s minister of Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna said they had made the “coup de trop”, one drop too much, immediately echoed by Aïssata Tall Sall, her Senegalese counterpart, borrowing the same expression from her French conceptual leader, to justify the war rhetoric that shakes since then the whole West Africa.

Who may not see that under the threat to be the next domino to fall in a context when militarism or, to use a Nigerian concept, “militics”, is no longer a shame.

An Afrobarometer report recently stated that 53 percent of Africans feel now comfortable with that prospect. And a meeting held over the past ten days in Monrovia, Liberia, even posited that at least two coups d’Etat may rock West Africa before the year ends.

That means we are now experiencing a race to the bottom.

Civilians who came to power in dubious conditions and entrenched themselves in all kinds of shenanigans have been among the loudest in the region’s leadership to call for a military intervention against the Nigeriens coup makers.

Their objective is to frighten the soldiers. To keep them away from the allays of political powers in a bid to maintain what had been the original arrangement after African nations gained independence, ie, that the political and military relations should be governed by the submission of the last groups to the formers.

That principle didn’t however survive long as, at the inception of African countries early years of political independence, over 60 years ago, the syndrome of the big men in power, ethnic-rule or bad governance made the first civilian rulers quickly become illegitimate -and hence the flurry of intrusion of military in African politics to rescue their nations as they cast their move.

In June 1999, at an Algiers Summit, held by the predecessor of the African Union (AU), namely the Organization of African Unity (OAU), African leaders, following a global trend towards democratization, on the back of the end of the Cold war with the demise of the communism, vertical, leadership, agreed to change the continent’s polity.

They decided that a pact making the military return to the barracks, controlling national borders, ensuring a secure national atmosphere and providing military engineering for national development and infrastructure would be matched by an improved, democratic, governance of the politics by the civilians.

That deal fell apart in light of the gross failure of civilians’ rulers to live up to their promise to do better than their Kaki counterparts.

What happened in Niger falls in that context where civilians once they get to power practice “one man, one vote, once”, never willing to exit democratically nor manage the resources of their countries for the national interest but for their private yearnings.

What prompted Ecowas to vade in with the warmongering language may have also to do with the fact that many of its national leaders have a conscience problem. Some of them, if not many, know they have not been elected in a transparent manner; others carry a lot of baggage having looted their countries’ purses and natural resources; and, worse, there are those who have blood in their hands considering their human-rights abuses and even killings.

The Niger military safari they recklessly validated is not surprising for any careful observer of politics in places where democracy is just a tool for achieving private goals.

The world indeed knows that when leaders, in such environments, get confronted at home with challenges that affect negatively their popularity or legitimacy, one of the ways to extricate from their declining lot is to find a way to distract the attention of their compatriots is by finding a scapegoat or distracting project.

In this regard, the fastest bet is to create a war. Argentinian militaries did just that by engaging over forty years ago in a war against the United Kingdom around the disputed Falklands/Malvinas Islands.

The Niger coming war -if ever it passes the rhetoric level- is not just one about going after a bunch of coup makers nor a derivation conflict alone.

Who is not aware of the geopolitics behind it? Here comes to mind France’s role in this saga. As, clearly, losing her grip on the former colonies she maintains through a solid web of indirect neocolonial strategies in Africa, including the control of their money, the supervision of their resources and security apparatus and the selection of their leaders, acting on her behalf and interests, France has been a driving force behind the tough stance Ecowas has taken on Niger. Even to the poing where it has mobilized the international community, from the United Nations, The AU, The European Union and of course Ecowas puppets eager to serve her wishes.

No matter what America says, despite her laudable efforts at mediating by sending to Niamey, Niger’s capital, Victoria Nulland, her number 2 diplomat, Washington has continued unfortunately to repeat Paris’s mantra.  Stating that Ecowas, that is failing, must be supported. That is a stance that used to be the norm during the Cold war, from 1946 to 1989, when it agreed to a role-sharing with its European, former colonial powers, giving them the mandate to be in charge of Africa while it was focusing on the bigger picture, namely the containment of the Soviet Union.

No one can understand why when neocolonialism is being rejected across the continent and that former colonial powers have left Africa, why Paris remains still hell-bent to salvaging a divine ownership on over a dozen number of African nations. 

The truth is that with herself and her Western allies calling for the sovereignty of Ukraine to be upheld in opposition to the Russian invasion, it has been suffering from since February 2022, how come France has managed to convince further the international community, to back the military solution to end the coup d’Etat in Niger? Many are also aware that it is only doing so to keep control of that hapless country’s uranium while stating the case that her colonial safari is not yet over.

We are living at a time when Francophone people and countries, not necessarily the Trojan horses Paris has kept at their helms, have engaged the battle for a genuine decolonization, the second and most earnest, of their lands.

By covering the military coup, may be the “parricide”, as it is known in French parlance (killing of his adoptive father, Idriss Deby), by General Mahamat Deby, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, is in the midst of this confusing situation while making the local official players being put to use at meeting like those of Ecowas which create a new rupture between an organization losing touch with the pulses of their nations -and the peoples who no longer are aligned with its erratic behavior.

In light of the growing conundrum, we are now faced with a huge dilemma. Will France bankroll a neocolonial military adventure in Niger with the risk of transforming West Africa into a powder keg?  Will it not be funny to see the African military forces being deployed under the supervision of France? How can Macron justifies this zeal when barely two and four months after he was sworn-in as Niger President, the same Mohamed Bazoum he is projecting as a democracy champion was celebrating next to him, on April 2021, the coup d’Etat made by Deby-son as the sole manner to contain the rebels lurking on Chad?

Let us not overestimate the talk of Russia taking advantage of France’s demise in West Africa. The war against Ukraine and the Wagner rebellion, albeit brief, exposed the status of Russia’s Putin: a giant with clay legs…

Let us also not believe that China is eager to mingle in this complex crisis. The decision to invoke “force majeure” by the Chinese firm Guezouba in order to stop the Kandaji dam it was doing in Niger is the confirmation that the Middle Empire is more capitalistic than ideologically driven: hence the wait-and-see attitude it adopts, based on the tenets of real-politics -namely it bids its time, as advised by one of his paramount leaders, Deng Xiaoping, the father of its economic reform, before following the winning side.

The biggest challenge this crisis lay bare is the democracy decay in West Africa. We have never witnessed such a regression. Rule of law is suffocating. Corruption is rife. Social inequality destroys the social harmony. Ethnicism is back with a vengeance. Insecurity and terrorism all around. Human-rights trampled with. State-violence, the legitimate one, as argues Max Weber, is replaced by the surging of private militias, many created to sustain to power their masters. And, compounding this situation; sovereignty is being lost, even reduced, because leaders in the region are more dealers, willing to sell out what had been hitherto the pride of the nations they are in charge of.

Rescuing democracy will take more that bellicose rhetoric from the Ecowas leaders who are first and foremost compelled to show their true democratic colors before lecturing the world on what they don’t practice at home.  Going to war in Niger is an even worse proposition. Having failed to fight the rag-tags armies of terrorists and jihadists, unable to play a Leviathan role as the keeper of security in their national borders, most of them have become day-dreamers.

By announcing they will go to war in Niger to do what America failed to achieve in Somalia in 1993 and in Afghanistan (where it ended up negotiating with the Talibans), the West African leaders did not even take into account that they could not fly their Chiefs of Army Staff to a meeting place in Accra this past Saturday, August 12th. Now they will do the encounter on August 16 and 17th just to show off, to increase their bargaining capacity towards a military junta they know they can get out of power.

Too little, too late. Where will they get the muscles to carry the troops, maintain them, face the budgetary constraints to be added to their dire internal situation? Who will foot the bill? Have they prepared a plan before going to war? Do they have an exit strategy?

With a landmass of 1, 266000 km2, in the hands of a military backed up by their citizenry and the population of West Africa, this harsh and inhospitable territory that Niger is may be the graveyard for many ill-equipped West African armies -and for France’s neocolonial remaining allure. And at the end of the day, the solution will be worse that the ill it was meant to cure may transform West Africa into a new Libya.

The signs are on the walls: the outcome would make of the region a big ball in fire, a volcano, while West Africa would fall further in all the metrics it had tried to meet by creating Ecowas on May 28, 1975. 

This war talk is a joke that is better put aside than maintained as an unnecessary distraction for a region still grappling with challenges that make it the sick man of Africa.

Stop this nonsense…The shortest jokes, even those in the name of grandstanding or to seek legitimacy through proxy-wars, are the best. The West African leaders do not speak on behalf of democracy or the people of the region but only for the Club of civilian coup makers they want to be the sole in this league of criminals -the military is their fiercest competitors in this regard.

Restoring them once they lose power is not in the best interest of democracy, the world must be awaken on the complexity of West African politics…

As far as I am concerned, as an Ecowas citizen, I want to state it candidly: this war is not in my name!

•Adama Gaye, a former Director of Communication of Ecowas, lives in exile after being illegally detained by the human-rights violating state of Senegal. He is the author of Hostage of a State (Editions L’Harmattan) that recounts his ordeal.

A skit circulating in the cyberspace is said to be  the story of the Nigerian economy: in just two minutes the exchange rate of the naira to a dollar rises from N730 to N1,200.

In the hilarious video, a man desperately in need  of dollars for a trip engages a  seller of the foreign currency in a negotiation. The buyer is  told that  the exchange rate has changed from N730 to a dollar agreed before the meeting to N790. Although the  buyer gets angry and  insults his customer because of  the hike, yet he  reluctantly agrees  to pay the new rate.  But before the greenbacks could be handed  over to the buyer the seller’s phone rings and he tells  his customer that, in fact,  the rate is now N830 to a dollar. Almost simultaneously the buyer gets a call from another source that the rate is N880. The buyer now gets angrier about the rising price of the dollar.  He rains curses on the  second customer.  Even the  physically present seller condemns the excessive rate from the other  seller only for his own phone to ring again. The seller is informed that the rate has risen to N900 to a dollar. The seller again urges the buyer to pay the new rate while the later threatens to assault the former if the phone rings again. And before the seller  could finish counting the dollar bills he gets  yet another call that the rate is now N1,200 to a dollar, all  within two minutes! With more curses and insults, the exasperated buyer  carries the seller out of the scene… 

Discussions of the state things in the economy seems to begin and end with the exchange rate  of the naira to a dollar. Every economic problem of Nigeria seems to have  a dollar dimension. The dollar question is clearly  at the root of the fuel price crisis. Somehow, the  fetishisation  of the dollar has  assumed an unimaginable proportion.  You are sometimes told of the “dollar component” in the production of  a commodity  or the provision of a service that has no  foreign input.

Senior Advocate of Nigeria Femi Falana calls it the “extreme dollarisation of the Nigerian economy” in a sharp critique of policies in the last few years from a political economy  standpoint. Against the laws of the land, domestic transactions are conducted in dollars by the few people  who have access to the American currency. Dollar is used to buy property and pay rents within Nigeria.  School fees are  professional fees are settled in dollars in the country. This trend is often ignored as the focus is on foreign  payments when talking about the price of dollar. The lawyer  has called on policymakers to explore alternatives to the dollar as some other countries are doing in the face of the economic crisis.

Among other suggestions, Falana has called for a debate on  Nigeria’s membership of the BRICS, the acronym for  a group of  five countries –  Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. These countries are  largely defined by their geo-political importance, rates of economic growth and, of course,  their sizes.

Although “de-dollarisation”  is not on the agenda, the use of local currencies among members  will be in focus   at the 15th summit of BRICS. 

Yet, in talking about approaches to get out of the economic woods in Nigeria, BRICS is never a popular topic among the  experts and policymakers.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has invited President Bola Tinubu and other African leaders to the next month’s summit of BRICS in Johannesburg, South Africa. As the host, Ramaphosa said he would like  leaders of  the other African countries to take the opportunity of the August summit “to have a dialogue”  with  the other BRICS leaders – President Xi Jinping of China, Brazil’s President Luiz Lula da Silva and  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Russian President Vladimir Putin has wisely elected to stay away physically  from the meeting  so as to avoid a situation in which  the purpose of the summit would be  overshadowed by a diplomatic row that could ensue because of his presence in South Africa. The International Criminal Court has issued a hypocritical warrant of arrest against Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Putin will participate virtually  while his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, will be on ground in South Africa.  The secretary-general of the United Nations Antonio Guterres  and the chairperson of the African Union President Azali  Assoumani of the Union of Comoros are also expected to attend  the meeting. Countries in Asia and Latin America have also been invited to the summit.

Although  views are divergent within BRICS on the parameters for admitting new members, yet 23 countries have already applied for membership of BRICS. Among the applicants are Egypt, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Iran, United Arab Emirates and Argentina.

The expansion of the membership of BRICS is expected to be a major issue on the agenda in the Johannesburg  summit. While Brazil is not enthusiastic about expansion and India is said to be seemingly reluctant, China supports the idea for its own geo-political reasons while, for Russia,  it is a route out of diplomatic isolation orchestrated by the West. But all are united on shaking off the dominance of the American dollar in their respective national economies while each  struggles to earn a place  in the landscape of the  global economy.  So, while the summit’s communique may not contain  a farewell to the dollar, reflections will be devoted on alternatives.

Incidentally, the man who coined the acronym BRIC in 2001 (before the admission of South Africa in 2010 to make it BRICS), Lord  Jim O’Neill, was reported by the London Financial Times yesterday as describing as “ridiculous” the proposition that BRICS countries should have a common currency  as a possible alternative to the dollar. He wondered if BRICS could create a central bank. He  asked:  “How would you do that?”   This was  apparently in  response  to Lula who has been radically championing the idea of a common currency.  The huge irony is that the original conceptual  promoter of BRICS now has a lot of uncharitable things to say about the economic group.  O’Neill’s  latter-day pessimism about an economic  united front  on the part of BRICS is hinged, among other things,  on the “endless historical battles” between China and India. According to him, BRICS as a group has “never achieved anything since they first started meeting.”  For him, that’s one reason America should not worry about any viable challenge to  the dominance of the dollar. However, O’Neill is honest enough to admit that dominance of the dollar has been to the disadvantage of the emerging economies.  He told the Financial Times:  “The dollar’s role is not ideal for the way the world has evolved. You’ve got all these economies who live on this cyclical never-ending twist of whatever the (US Federal Reserve) decides to do in the interests of the US.”

This reservation of O’Neill about the dollar is at least one point that should attract the attention of Nigerian policymakers and experts. After all,  the intellectual provenance of  the BRICS is  traced to O’Neill, who first  mentioned BRIC in a 2001 paper he wrote as the chief economist of Goldman Sachs. He observed that  the four largest “emerging economies” were contributing more growth  to the world economy than the seven leading industrialised countries called the G7 –  the United states, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Canada. O’Neill had optimistic projections for individual members of BRICS especially China and India.

That was 22 years ago.

But it was not  until 2009 that the BRIC countries began to meet yearly in a formal sense. The BRICS  countries support the New Development Bank  based in Shanghai, China, which they project as a counterpoise to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

With a combined population of over 3 billion, the BRICS represent about 40% of the world population and 26% of the global economy. Regardless of the western cynicism about  BRICS, its collective economic and geo-political stature in the global arena is what is attracting other nations to join the group. These are countries which  like to chart a different path to prosperity. Hence, BRICS cannot be ignored as a force. Inherent in the spirit of BRICS is actually the quest for a new world order freshly pursued in the 21st Century. As a western economist noted recently, the emergence of BRICS is a ringing statement that the G7 can no longer  run the world economy the way it has done for decades with a contested  history.

However, the lack of enthusiasm about BRICS in Nigeria among experts and policymakers is ideological and can easily be explained. The only model that is considered workable in Nigeria is the one approved by the World Bank and the IMF. Meanwhile,  it is the United States  that choses the president of the World Bank  and the manging director  of the IMF is always a European candidate.  Policymakers  in Nigeria still  subjectively retains what  was termed the TINA mindset in the course of the vigorous debate on the  Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in the 1980s. The full meaning of TINA here is There Is No Alternative. It is a philosophical problem which is hardly discussed because it is assumed that  successive  administrations work with templates built  with  the same economic thoughts. For policymakers, no alternative could  be contemplated outside  the western orthodoxy. Yet, countries in Asia  that have moved  up in the ladder of development have not been fixated with these IMF and World Bank models which our experts sell here with enormous energy and confidence.

The other  day a television anchor wondered if South Africa could afford the risk of fraternising  with Russia that’s under heavy western sanctions. So, the gentleman  expects America and its western allies to punish South Africa for opting for its  own path to development and formulating its relations with other countries on that basis. Yet, no nation needs the permission of a superpower to chart its path to progress.

In sum, Nigeria should be interested in what is taking place at the BRICS arena. Alternatives should be explored in finding strategic  solutions to Nigeria’s economic problems. That’s at least one reason why BRIC should matter to Nigeria regardless of what the western cynics say about the group.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has claimed Nigerians buy the cheapest fuel in West Africa.

Aguri Ngelale, the Special Adviser to the President, disclosed this on Tuesday.

The president noted that the fuel pump price will not be adjusted upward.

The presidency was reacting to claims making the rounds of an upward review of fuel pump prices following the increase in the landing cost of the commodity caused by the depreciation of the Naira against the Dollar.

Tinubu said Nigeria is the only country selling fuel below N700 per litre.

“Senegal at pump price today of N1,273 equivalent per litre, Guinea at N1,075 per litre, Côte d’ Ivore at N1,048 per litre equivalent in their currency, Mali N1,113 per litre, Central African Republic N1,414 per litre, Nigeria is presently averaging between N568 and N630 per litre.

“We are presently the cheapest, most affordable purchasing state in the West African sub-region by some distance. No country is below N700 per litre”, he said.

DAILY POST recalls that Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited said there is no plan to increase fuel pump prices upward.

The Nigeria Labour Congress threatened to strike without notice if fuel pump prices were reviewed upward.

In two months, fuel pump prices were reviewed twice, now at N617 per litre after subsidy removal.

The Director General of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Mr Segun Ajayi-Kadir, has said hard times await Nigeria’s manufacturers for the rest of the year.

He said this during an interview with AriseTv on the effects of the skyrocketing exchange rate and the mooted increase in PMS pump rice across the country.

When asked about the outlook for the year considering the current exchange rate of about N900/$ and high cost of fuel, and whether the country should expect more exits as in GSK and further job losses, he said: “The expectation is that we wouldn’t go that route even though everything is pointing in that direction.

“There are hard times awaiting manufacturers. We have seen the exit of GSK and the reduction in the profile of some of our members. This has dampened the confidence of manufacturers for the rest of the year.”

On the impact of the subsidy removal on the manufacturing sector, Kadir noted that the industry has seen an increase in the price of commercial activities in general, including logistics.

He advised the federal government to ensure a ramp-up of domestic production as that will mitigate the price of PMS in the country.

The dollar has crashed to between N805 to N790 at the parallel exchange market on Tuesday Daily Trust can authoritatively report.

It started a steady decline from N925 to N930 that it was exchanged in the morning till around 4:00 pm when news about a possible Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervention filtered through to the Bureau De Change (BDC) operators.

Recall that the CBN announced plans to take critical decisions to reverse the slide of the naira in the next few days, thereby resulting in significant losses to the speculators.

The acting CBN governor, Folashodun Shonubi, dropped the hint on Monday while briefing State House reporters after a meeting with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Checks by our reporters at Allen Avenue and Bagada in Lagos suggest that the BDCs are buying at N900 and selling at N910, after touching N970 to the dollar earlier in the day.

At the Wapa forex market in Kano, the BDCs are buying at N875 and selling at N905 to the dollar.

Further checks at Zone 4 BDCs market in Abuja revealed how the money speculators in the area were taken unawares by the development.

However, at the Investors and Exporters window, the dollar opened at N789/$, got to a high of N799/$ and a low of N740/$ and eventually closed at N774/4, N10 higher than the N764/$ it closed the previous day.

Reacting to the development, one of the money exchange operators who spoke to our reporter said, the dollar may crash further adding that many people will lose money because they purchased the dollar at a higher rate than what it is being exchanged for.

A customer who spoke to Daily Trust said, he asked about the exchange rate in the morning and was told it is being exchanged at N930 to a dollar.

He however said on coming to exchange it in the evening he was told that it has crashed adding that, the first price he was told was N850, but in less than 30 minutes, it crashed to N790 and when he was left without a choice, he has to exchange it at N790.

One of the BDC operators at Zone 4, Ibrahim Muhammad informed Daily Trust on the telephone, that the crash has caused a sudden turn of events that will cause a huge loss to many people in the parallel exchange market.

“They have just sent the BDCs bidding eligibility list to us. Nobody can predict what will happen next.

“If this happens after the meeting, what will happen after the CBN comes up with a new intervention policy to shore up the Naira can just be imagined. So, for now, we are waiting to see what happens tomorrow. It may appreciate a little, but it may also crash further. It is still being exchanged between N800 and N790 as we speak”.

Deposit Money Banks are battling dollar shortage after the Central Bank of Nigeria slashed their foreign exchange allocations, The PUNCH has learnt.

Multiple bank officials told one of our correspondents they have been unable to meet their customers’ forex demand for school fees, Personal Travel Allowance, among others.

The gap between demand and supply has become worsened. We only the CBN will intervene and supply more forex soon, “ a top official of a tier-1 bank told The PUNCH.

“For some weeks now, we have not got allocation. Sometimes they delay in giving” another bank official said.

Other sources from banks also confirmed to The PUNCH that the CBN has drastically reduced their forex allocations.

The CBN on Monday said it would introduce measures to curb the naira slide.

However, the naira gained at the parallel market on Tuesday, after the central bank said it would intervene in the continued depreciation of the local currency.

On Monday, while speaking after briefing President Bola Tinubu on what the bank was doing to halt the naira slide, the Acting Governor, CBN, Folashodun Shonubi, said the fluctuation in the parallel market was not solely driven by economic factors, but also speculative demand.

However, some Bureau de Change Operators who spoke to The PUNCH, said the naira which was earlier exchanged to the dollar at 956/$ on Monday, exchanged at 925/$ on Tuesday.

A BDC operator, Alh Alli Kareem, said, “Today, we bought and sold the naira at 915/$ and 925/$. They are saying they will pump more dollars into the economy but, we are still waiting.”

On the Investors & Exporters window, trading of the naira commenced at 785.89/$ and reached a high of 799.90/$ before closing at 774.77/$ on Tuesday; it closed at 764.68/$ on Monday.

A former President, Association of National Accountants of Nigeria, Dr Sam Nzekwe, said, the intervention announced by the CBN might be a short-term one, adding that might not be sustainable.

He said, “People don’t have confidence in naira again; when people have money, they go to the BDCs and buy the dollar and keep. The best intervention they can do is to see how they can get the economy to be productive, but now, we are importing a lot.

“If they are saying intervention, is it the dollar you have or the one you don’t have? I don’t worry that the CBN floated the naira, but it cannot defend it.”

It would be recalled that in July 2021, the CBN discontinued dollar allocation to the BDCs, but continued through the Deposit Money Banks.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government may in the coming weeks clamp down on Bureau De Change operators, The PUNCH has gathered.

Sources close to the matter, hinted to our correspondent that the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission might go after currency speculators whose activities have been putting pressure on the local currency.

“The Federal Government is planning to clamp down on operators of Bureau De Change across the country. Although they are businessmen, they are also part of the problem due to the rate at which they greedily hike rates to make profits. The current rates are not market driven but speculative, and that is why the government said they would intervene,” the source said.

EFCC could not verify the plan as of press time.

There was a casualty on Tuesday (today) when an oil rig belonging to Seplat Energy Plc collapsed in Delta State.

The affected oil rig is located near Ovhor in Delta State, Naija News understands.

Confirming the incident, the oil company, in a statement via its official Twitter page, said 92 of the 96-member crew were accounted for and safe.

The company, however, noted that one person died in the incident while three of its crew members are still missing as of reporting time.

“Seplat Energy regrets to announce a serious incident on the Depthwise swamp drilling rig “Majestic” early this morning. Seplat, the operator of the SEPLAT/NNPCL joint venture, contracted the rig.

“It was in transit to its planned drilling location at Ovhor in Delta State when it capsized.

“92 of the 96-member crew are accounted for and safe. However, tragically one fatality occurred during the incident, while three other rig personnel are still missing”, the company wrote on Twitter.

Adams Oshiomhole, lawmaker representing Edo-North Senatorial District, has said “nothing can be worse” as the nation’s economy inherited by President Bola Tinubu from Muhammadu Buhari, his predecessor.

Oshiomhole said the Tinubu-led administration took over an economy in which the nation’s national revenue was barely enough to service the debt burden, spending 96 percent of the income.

This is even as the former Edo governor stressed the need for painful decisions by Tinubu, comparing it to undergoing surgery to address a serious ailment.

The former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) spoke to State House Correspondents after meeting with Vice President Kashim Shettima, at the State House, Abuja.

Oshiomhole, who was also a former president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), said: “The issues of the economy is work in progress. There is no quick fix. The government inherited a terrible economic situation. The government inherited an economy in which our total national revenue was barely enough to service our debt burden, spending 96%, which is to say every N100k Nigerian earn, 96k is going to repay debts, to service debt. So, you have only 4k left to pay all the salaries. So, nothing can be worse.

“But they came determined that they will have to do business unusual; to arrest the drift; stabilize the economy and then begin to move forward. Some painful decisions are necessary.

“Already, the executive—the president and vice president—they’ve shown courage in terms of the decisions they have taken, a radical movement away from one in which if you are well connected you could make billions without adding value to one in which if you want to make money, you have to work. We move away from a situation where CBN can favour you and you become a billionaire; of which they can pauperize you and your business collapses.

“Yes, it has created its own challenges, but I don’t know of any drug without side effect. Doctors will always tell you that every drug might cure your ailment but it will have a side effect. So, in taking it you have to do cost and benefit analysis.

“On the whole, I believe that the broad economic, specific macro economic policies that have been put in place so far both in terms of monetary policies and in terms of fiscal policies is the best way to start.

“You remember just recently a Minister of Finance distanced herself from the monetary policies of a CBN Governor and they were not talking. If the hand and the leg are not walking in harmony, then there is no way you can get to your destination. So, I think we are in a better situation now.

”But my plea to Nigerians is, when I say I will bail you out, I will fix a complicated system that is malfunctioning, I believe everyone knows that the more terrible the situation is, the more time I will require to take the right decision.

“Given the paucity of data and all the other basic infrastructure you need to take some quick decisions that are not pleasant but decision has to be taken.

“When I was a governor I did the same thing. I said, let me use my first six months to take the false decisions. I might lose few friends in the process but when those decisions begin to manifest and translate to benefits I will regain, not just the friends I have lost, I will definitely win more friends. That’s what happened in Edo and by the time I was running for my second term, I got more votes than I got in my first term because some of the difficult decisions I took in my first term came to fruition.

“So, there is no quick fix and there is no miracle in the life of nation states. As they say, leaders and statesmen think of tomorrow, the short-sighted politicians think of what is politically convenient. I’m convinced that Nigeria is safe hands.”

The Federal Government has been advised to discard the idea of Nigeria Air as a national carrier for the country, saying that only Ethiopian Airlines would benefit from the project. 

Aircraft pilot, Capt. Benson Ikponmwosa, in an open letter sent to President Bola Tinubu, sighted on August 15, 2023, by Naitrametrics, warned that nothing good would come out of Nigeria Air, rather the country was going to be trapped into another regime of sovereign debt. 

According to him, nowhere in the world that foreigners are part of a national airline as proposed by the former Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, stressing that the idea of foreigners owning majority shares in any national airline negated the very principle of the character and identity of the national carrier. 

He, however, clarified that foreigners may be part of any private airline designated as a flag carrier, mentioning Asky Airlines in Lome, Togo as an example. 

He maintained that Nigeria Air as presently conceptualised did not meet the standard of a national carrier. 

Ikponmwosa claimed that already, a businessman from Ethiopia, Mr. Zenedeneh Negatu had promised the airline $250 million even before the commencement of operations, wondering how the airline intended to offset the bill when the Nigerian Government owned just a 5% stake in the airline, which is not paid for. 

He also explained that no one knows the value of the 46 per cent shares of the Nigerian investors, while the 49 per cent of Ethiopian was in the aircraft the East African carrier planned to supply for the project. 

• He said: “It is not owned by Nigeria, in any shape or form, and it is only to serve a negative purpose. While their shareholding structure shows that the Nigerian Government owns 5% shares, Nigerian local investors have 46 per cent shares and almighty Ethiopian Airlines has 49% shares, the majority shareholder and the controller of the enterprise (Ethiopian Airlines) is being carefully disguised. 
• “This is how; we are told that the 5% given to the Nigerian Government is free, gratis, never to be paid for, and coming from the hearts of the investors. I expect that somewhere, it is written, that the 5% government shares is not a board voting block of shares. 
• “Therefore, the government would not be expected to use their 5% unpaid for shares to vote alongside the Nigerian investors in order to override Ethiopian Airlines who have 49%. 
• “Let it be known here that the so-called experts collaborating with Ethiopian Airlines are committing treason in their attempt to see this Nigeria Air through as it is.
• “They should stop now and retrace their steps if ignorance of certain steps taken by them is going to be used for their defence.
• “Even in Addis Ababa, no Ethiopian citizen will do what they (Nigerians) are doing against their country in Ethiopia.” 

He alleged that Ethiopian Airlines had been obsessed with getting the Nigerian airline market in the past 25 years – passenger and cargo, pointing out that the airline remained the only carrier operating out of four or more out of the country’s airports. 

He queried the Nigerian Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) arrangement with Ethiopia, noting that if Nigeria Air was birthed, it could not fly to Addis Ababa as the route was not profitable. 

Just last week, Ethiopian Airlines reiterated its plan to commence Nigeria Air operations in October this year. 

Mesfin Tasew, the CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, in an interview with Bloomberg TV, said the firm was eager to see Nigeria Air start flying local and international routes. 

According to  Tasew, the airline would begin operations with two wide-bodied planes and six narrow-bodied aircraft. 

• He said, “We are eager to see the airline start flying and connecting the local market to the international market” 

He also added that Ethiopian Airlines using its proven model, had an objective to enable Nigeria to have a flag carrier. 

Tasew also commented on the difficult business environment in Nigeria but expressed optimism based on the size of the Nigerian economy and the potential inherent in it.